terry0100 writes: We have noticed that Microsoft's "Silverlight" IE control boosts the priority of the hosting IE process to "Above Normal". This is probably done to enhance the graphical experience.

But we also noticed that you cannot modify it. The Silverlight control actively keeps the IE process at "Above Normal" in the operating systems scheduler. You can reduce the process priority, but the Silverlight control will simply boost the host IE process up again. This has killed several laptops by exhausting the battery because the user could not stop the IE process in question.

IMHO, I feel that this is a very poor design decision. Enforcing their idea of what priority the process should run at is borderline virus like behavior.

An anonymous reader writes: We frequently hear how present computer security depends on the difficulty of prime factorization, which quantum computers perform instantly. Already we see a trickle of news stories showing progress on developing quantum computers and predictions of when the researchers will produce a useful computer. At that time, anyone will be able to decrypt intercepted or cached encrypted data such as credit card, medical, backups, and personal communications. Which ciphers depend on prime factorization? Are there ciphers which a classical computer can encrypt/decrypt but which a quantum computer cannot break? How do you envision the switchover occuring?

WillMcIver writes: "Many GPS receivers exist and their associated APIs.
I am interested to know developers' opinions about
current GPS receiver offering from the standpoint of
ease of use for application development.
Thanks,
WJM"